Dark Seed
by Little Kunai
Summary: This is a short fic about Zetsu's origins before he came to the Akatsuki
1. Chapter 1

Dark Seed

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

**Chapter One **

The old demon was hungry and searching. But not for food, for a mate. This was a plant demon, one of the lesser classes of demons. The plant demon was three hundred years old, which was long lived for his kind. Few of his kind ever made it as long as he had, and he was nearing the end of his life span. The plant demons lived at their fullest for three hundred years, and they mated once every hundred years, giving birth to one single seed. They were carnivorous and preyed on humans, animals and each other. Because of that they were solitary and only came together to mate. Because of their slow reproduction rate and their ability to be killed they had become rare, almost extinct. The males looked like men encased in large venus fly traps, they had short green hair and white expressionless eyes, they had black and white faces with two separate personalities. The females looked like women encased in large roses, they had the same eyes as the males but their faces were pale green, and they had long pink hair and thorny vines for slicing their prey to shreds.

The old demon quivered with fear as he neared the ancient mating grounds. Something had happened here, something was wrong. He pushed his root questioningly deep into the earth and was flooded by images one hundred years ago. He saw the beautiful plant women gracefully dancing and he smelled the sweet perfume-like pollen that settled candy-like into his mouth, he saw the plant men reach out with their man-roots and embedding themselves deep into the women, he also saw ninja waiting in the shadows, he tensed for the attack, but it didn't come. They were waiting, he realized, waiting until they were at their most vulnerable deep in their mating and embedded firmly into the earth. Silently swarms of insects tunneled around the roots of the embedded plant demons and the old demon began to shudder at the ghost pains as they were cut off from their life force.

The plant women screamed and the plant men struggled to free themselves, as a second group of ninja sprang into action and set the whole clearing ablaze, he listened sick to his stomach as his people blackened and crumbled into soot. He quested deeper into the earth to seek more of his own kind, he would have to travel thousands of miles and cross oceans to reach other demons! He didn't have that kind of time he had less then twenty four hours to live. That's when he knew that he was the last of his kind here. He wandered aimlessly until the last stars of pre-dawn twinkled dimly in the sky. He neared the Grass Village, and was struck by inspiration! The idea was unheard of! It was ridiculous! It would never work! But he was desperate now, he had to leave something of himself behind. He had to try! So he melded silently into the ground searching for his target. He found himself drawn into a room, with a blonde human women sleeping soundly.

Ki was dreaming, it was a strange dream. She saw a plant demon standing over her in the dim starlight, she had heard of them of course but had never seen one. They had gone extinct a hundred years ago. The plant man unfurled a strange gray looking penis and slid it into her, Ki moaned and bucked her hips, she hadn't had a man in a while. The plant man pumped her faster closing his eyes and holding back his own moans to avoid waking her as he embedded himself deeper into the eager and soft earth. Finally he closed his eyes in agony, forcing back the scream as his man-root opened painfully wide to let a sharp jagged edged seed force itself out. The woman screamed as the seed shoved itself into her, wrapped itself around an egg and with deadly vines climbed into her fertile womb.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

The minute Ki saw her baby, she knew she should turn the demon over to the council and have him destroyed immediately. but Ki was not a ninja, and Ki wasn't heartless. Even though she knew what this baby was, her maternal instincts had begun to overpower her logic, and so she took baby Zetsu and simply disappeared. It was a difficult life, and Ki was not going to lie to herself, she wanted so badly to have a roof over their heads, and three square meals a day. But she never regretted her decision to keep Zetsu alive. In Ki's favor though, was that her father had taken her on expeditions into the wilderness in case she ever got lost and needed to survive alone for a while. Ki made good use of those skills, but she could never leave her son for very long, and often went without food so he could eat.

Zetsu didn't need to be told that he was different, he had seen himself in a still crystal clear spring once. He also hungered for human flesh, and would sometimes go out when his mother was asleep, and hunted small children to feed on when his cravings got too bad. He also hunted small animals, though he refused to eat plants, because to him it felt wrong somehow. He would be stashed in a cave while his mother got small jobs in a village here and there and Zetsu also knew that his mother sacrificed a lot. But his mother never looked at him with fear and hatred, like other people did. Zetsu didn't know what he was, he never really questioned it. He only knew survival and his mother's love. Sometimes he snuck into the town and stole food and other supplies to keep them alive, the powers of his kind came as instinctively as breathing to Zetsu. He quickly learned how to hunt the way his mother did, to please her if nothing else. He was quiet and observant and kept his darker more cynical half to himself when she was around.

When Zetsu was fourteen everything changed. He and his mother were bunking down in a tent she had bought a few years back. Zetsu wished for privacy, but he knew that it just wasn't possible. Suddenly his mother's head snapped up. "Zetsu, douse the fire and stay in the cave no matter what you hear!" She commanded, Zetsu went into the cave, his stomach like there was a burning hot stone inside, he knew something was wrong. "Well, well look at this!" Said one man laughing. "We know you've got hidden in these woods!"

"Is that your lover?" A second man asked drunkenly! "Is that why you turned me down? Ya think you're too good for a human ya demon loving bitch!" Ki said nothing, she turned around, hoping to draw them away from her son, but then the two men cornered her. She wanted to scream as they pinned her too the ground and started ripping off her clothes. But she was afraid that her screaming would force her son out of hiding. She struggled in vain, but two men were too much for her. She hadn't eaten in weeks, and she had been sick for a long time. She was no match for them at all.

Zetsu walked out of the cave, he was very worried, his mother hadn't come back yet. He looked down at his mother, she was naked and bleeding. Tears streaked her face and Zetsu felt a lump forming in his throat. His mother never cried! No matter what happened she was always laughing and smiling. She didn't seem to see him though, she was murmuring so softly he couldn't make out what she was saying. He took her hand, and leaned closer. "No! No please don't take me yet! Pleeease I have to look after my son, who will take care of him if I'm not around?" She begged some unseen force. Zetsu shuddered, his mother was special, she could see things other people could not. "I can't die yet!" She moaned, "I have to take care of my son!" Zetsu looked up, he saw something coming an old man came and took his mother's hand. The old man gave him a passing glance, and then disappeared.

Zetsu stayed by his mother's side for two days, he wondered if she would hate him if he ate her body? Was she up there watching him now? He buried the body at last and moved on. He walked into a small town and heard laughter. He looked up and recognized the voices of the two men who had killed his mother. But he didn't attack, he waited patiently for them to step off the road and out of the town. Consumed by a cold fixedity. One man went off to piss in the woods, as he was zipping down his pants, he began to scream. He looked up and saw the demon of the woman he had raped, there was no escape for him. He was devoured slowly and Zetsu tortured the second man slowly, numbing him and making sure the man saw himself being eaten alive.

He began to travel, he had no idea where he was going. But he had no problem fending for himself, he was unique in the fact that plant demons never knew their parents. But he had, and his heart was swamped in sorrow. As fate would have it, he was headed towards the direction of his mother's village. He sat down one day, staking out a village for potential prey and wondering why this place seemed so familiar to him. A strange urge seized him and he sank a finger questioningly into the earth. The earth rewarded him, and what he saw surprised him. It was like watching a movie backwards. He saw his mother struggling in labor, saw himself as a newborn being pulled out of her womb. Saw her wrap him up, and express milk in a bottle. He went back further and he saw a man like himself wandering the village with some nameless hunger that Zetsu could not quite understand. He could feel the man's desperation, and saw him creep upon a young woman, he saw him having sex with her and heard her scream of pain. Then the man walked into the forest and withered away like a plant in a fire. Zetsu's heart began pounding when he realized that this was his father!

Zetsu curled up against the tree, he had not cried when his mother died, but now seeing the circumstances of his birth and conception he cried. Rocking himself back and forth he eventually fell asleep. It was ironic to the boy that it was rape that had brought him into this world, and rape that had ended his world. Bright sunlight stabbed through his eyelids and he heard voices. He sat up and blinked, staring at the group of people that surrounded him. "I thought they were all extinct!" One huffed gruffly. "He's not even a full-blooded demon!" Said an old woman excitedly. "How can you tell?" The younger woman asked. "I've been around!" She snapped back tartly, as her companions sighed. "We could use him." Someone suggested. They all agreed and one man picked up the boy. He stared at the jagged symbols on their headbands as they carried him into the village. Zetsu no longer cared what happened to him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Zetsu stared listlessly as the council debated his fate. "Destroy it!" One woman said, "No good can come of keeping that...thing here!" She spat in disgust. "It could prove useful to us." Another man argued, pointing at Zetsu as though he were nothing more then a lifeless object. "Hey! Hey boy! What's your name?" A big burly ninja asked, peering down at him. "It doesn't have a name you fool! Monsters don't have names!" Scoffed a younger woman derisively. "Zetsu." His white side said quietly. Everyone stopped yelling, and stared at him in amazement. "My name is Zetsu. My mother Ki named me that."

"Ki?" An old woman asked. "My daughter?" Zetsu looked up at the old ninja in surprise. "My daughter was pregnant and disappeared fourteen years ago." She said to no one in an empty voice. Suddenly her gray eyes glittered like cold steel. "What did you do to my daughter you monster?" She demanded picking up Zetsu and holding a kunai to his throat. "Two men raped and killed her." His white side answered, **"Put me down you crazy old bitch!"** His black side snarled warningly. The old woman dropped him in surprise, then gently touched his forehead with her hand, she began shuddering as images of the last fourteen years of her daughter's life rolled past her, from the night of Zetsu's conception, to the crudely carved headstone he had placed on her grave. "My husband came to guide her home." She murmured to herself contemplatively, and Zetsu jerked away from her flustered and upset.

The council had waited patiently for the old woman to come back from her vision questing. The older members all understood Gogatsu's psychic gift, the younger members seemed confused, whispering to each other that she was crazy. Fortunately for Zetsu, Gogatsu had a lot of political clout. "You are all I have left of my daughter." She said looking him in the eye. "You should count yourself lucky you're under my protection! Dare to harm a single villager, and grandson or no I'll burn you to the ground, just like I did to the rest of your kind over a hundred years ago!" The white half of Zetsu closed his eye and tears trickled down his face, the black half of Zetsu growled menacingly, **"I don't need your protection old woman! Don't you threaten me!"** The council gasped at the plant demon's audacious retort to Gogatsu. To everyone's surprise, the old woman's harsh laughter rang heartily through the room. "You have spirit! You take after me boy!" The other council members turned away as Gogatsu led the demon boy out of the room, or at least the older ones did. The younger members glared at her angrily, or stared at Zetsu fearfully.

Zetsu was walking home, his skills in stealth had run around the village like wildfire, inciting fear and begrudging admiration. His grandmother was determined to teach him everything she knew since she'd never had the chance to teach Ki. They did not love each other, they merely tolerated one another, and that suited them just fine. Thunk! Zetsu turned around, wincing at the sting of a rock on the left side of his flytrap. He glared. "Little bastards! Who do you think you are?!" Both sides asked at the same time. An older boy laughed at him, "Get out of here! You don't belong you freak!" The other kids laughed. Zetsu sighed wondering if he would be better off leaving the village. He closed his flytrap as the kids threw rocks at him all at the same time. "What a wuss!" Laughed a girl shrilly. "Yah! He can't even defend himself! He's a weak freak!" This caused everyone to laugh. "Hey! Where'd he go?" The kids looked around, when suddenly the boy who had thrown the first rock suddenly sank quickly into the ground, caught by Zetsu's flytrap! "Aaaah! He's gonna eat me! Help me! Help me! HELP ME!!!" All the other kids screamed and ran away. No one was willing to get close enough to pull him out of Zetsu's jaws.

"Sensei! Sensei! Zetsu ate Renga!" Several jounin went running. One of them was the boy's father. "I told that crazy old woman to destroy it! Now it's my eaten my son! I'll kill it!"He growled angrily. Suddenly he heard a cry for help! "Renga!" He said, and turned to run in the opposite direction. Zetsu had disappeared, and all that could be seen was the boy's head. "Don't just stand there!" He yelled at the relieved Jounin. "Get me outta here!" They had to dig him out of the hard, sun-baked earth. Renga hadn't suffered much more then broken bones and a wounded ego.

"Zetsu!" Yelled his grandmother,** "What the hell do you want?"** His black half snapped irritably. "Yes, you wanted to see me?" His white half asked politely. "Did you bury one of your classmates in the ground?" She asked folding her arms and glaring at him. "Yes grandmother, but I was only defending myself." His white half explained. **Next time those little bastards throw rocks at me I'll leave em underground!"** The black half roared angrily. She sighed in frustration, Zetsu had been in so many fights with the other kids ever since he got here, and he was not always the victim.

He had once snapped his flytrap shut on a classmate's dress and laughed when it ripped right off her body. They had gotten into a fierce fight, and both had gone home bloodied and bruised. The only good thing was, that he had not eaten anyone that she knew of. He no longer allowed her to touch him, and seeing those serrated and sensitive leaves respond to the slightest gust of wind made her keep away from him. There were plenty of jounin who had gone missing and she often wondered if her grandson was behind at least some of it. She knew he hunted in the woods, she had often found bits of animal fur dusting his bloodstained clothes. All of his clothes were handmade to accommodate the leaves that grew larger every month. She suddenly wondered if some of that was human hair? She would have to find a way to collect some of it. Gogatsu had no love for her grandson, it was only because her beloved Ki had fought so long to keep him alive that she allowed him to take up residence in her home.

He was tall for a fifteen year old, already six foot even, and that was without his towering twin leaves. She wondered when his birthday was. Was there even a point in celebrating it? No one would come, they were all afraid of the half demon plant. No parent allowed their child to play with him, so Zetsu had nobody. Had he been a full-blooded demon he would not have cared at all. But Zetsu was half-human, who had known nothing but unconditional love for fourteen long years, and deep inside he was heart wrenchingly lonely.

His birthday came and went, for her dead daughter's sake Gogatsu celebrated a private birthday. She took him shopping, took him out to eat, and gave him presents. Zetsu was not materialistic at all. But he accepted the presents quietly, just as he had when his mother was still alive. Zetsu had never had such a miserable birthday. Not because his grandmother was making it miserable, but because it was the second birthday he had celebrated alone. As the young Chunin stared up at the rising moon, tears trickled down half his face. Suddenly he saw two ninja coming after him. One of them blew a fireball his way, and Zetsu barely dodged it. He had a natural fear of fire, because he was far more flammable then any human! He melded into the earth, feeling the blazing heat scorch the earth above him, his heart twisted painfully as he listened ton the long dry grass catch fire and die. Suddenly one of the men screamed as he was dragged underground. Zetsu finally emerged on a bare, rocky cliff-side, his heart pounding, his companion was crippled from traveling underground for so many long miles. The man thrashed as Zetsu began eating him. The crunch of his bones, and the ripping of muscle and sinew made the man scream in terror! Those screams carried over to the Hidden Grass village, and the manhunt for Zetsu began.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Zetsu took his time, he knew had time before the other ninja came looking for him. He savored his meal, slurping up the blood, ripping the corded flesh with sharp teeth. The man was dead now, he noticed as he paused to rip out the man's lungs and intestines. Those he left, the man was a notorious smoker, and Zetsu could not abide smoke of any kind. He ripped off an arm, devouring it the same way someone would eat a chicken leg. He looked up and wiped his mouth, smearing blood all over his clothes. The ninjas were faster then he thought. He could feel their vibrations in the earth. He sank into the ground, listening with delight to the disgusted ravings of the horrified ninja as they took in the sight of their fallen comrade's half eaten body scattered all over the ground. His eyes wide and staring, his tongue ripped out and blood pooled a sinister black in the moonlight, his intestines coiled amidst puddles of blood. Something hit one man in the face, he screamed and batted away the lungs as they tumbled on and off the ground like a macabre plastic bag being blown in the wind. Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to rumble and shake. Thorny vines snagged their clothing and skin, and foot-long venus flytraps opened and shut on the confused ninja, pinning their arms against to their sides, until they were embedded shoulder deep into the cliff-side. One by one the team began screaming and struggling desperately to free themselves, as they felt themselves being chewed in half.

The next morning, a second team of ninja had been sent to see what had become of the first team. "Look! They're buried in the ground!" One ninja pointed out. "Here I'll help you get out!" She said, and with an earth style jutsu released her stuck comrades. She screamed as half-eaten bodies cut off at the torso collapsed onto the ground like broken dolls. She doubled in half and began throwing up as the smell of rotting flesh began filling the hot summer air.

Zetsu was once again alone, but this time he relished the solitude. Humans were cruel, just as cruel as any demon they decided to slay, and in other ways many times crueler. "So much for a compassionate, intelligent and moral race." Both of Zetsu's halves grumbled darkly. For many months Zetsu wandered alone, often taking time to observe his victims before eating them, often what he saw hardened his heart, and he became convinced that by eating them he was doing the world a favor by ridding it of at least a few of these vile creatures. Until one day he discovered an interesting organization, one where his skills were valued, and he could kill and eat all the ninja he wanted. It was an organization called the Akatsuki.

Fini


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